


Christmas Past

by stellarel



Series: Dreams and Disasters [2]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Christmas, Christmas Eve, Gen, Old Friends
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-25
Updated: 2020-12-25
Packaged: 2021-03-10 21:33:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,408
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28323888
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stellarel/pseuds/stellarel
Summary: The Doctor keeps her promise and goes back to visit the Arwells on Christmas. A peaceful night passes over mulled wine (or, well, juice for the Doctor) and old friends. Nothing bad happens and all is well in the world. The Doctor has family - she just forgets it sometimes.
Series: Dreams and Disasters [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2075289
Comments: 1
Kudos: 5





	Christmas Past

**Author's Note:**

> Hello!! The christmas spirit brought my writing vibes back from the dead, and here i am. Also, in my head this happens in the same universe as my fic Dreams and Disasters, and this is why Madge knows who 13 is and is totally chill with it. you don't need to know anything about that fic to understand this fic. this is just a general "moment in time" fic of good vibes with old friends, BUT i also wrote a separate outtake with more Dreams and Disaster vibes in it. that exists elsewhere.

The Doctor makes good on her promise not to miss another Christmas at the Arwell residence. Or at least she tried her best - it was all a little wobbly, trying to fit linear human time-space events into her schedule.

  
This year, though, she made sure to drop in precisely on Christmas Eve. And she even remembered presents, and she made sure all possible threats to Earth were taken care of. You know, pre-emptively. She _did_ have a pretty rubbish record when it came to Christmases on Earth.

So. The Doctor wraps her presents with the best of her abilities - which was a bit of a challenge, have _you_ ever tried to wrap a telescope in gift wrap? 

  
(The TARDIS may have helped, in the end. With a bit of dimensional engineering in the mix, the end result was pretty decent).

When she's done, the Doctor smiles, and straightens her bow tie.

(It hadn't been a conscious decision, putting it on, but she didn't mind. The nostalgia of it warmed her bones, even if it did feel a little bit out of place. But the Doctor that Madge, Cyril and Lily had known had been a completely different Doctor, mostly, and this made her feel a little bit more comfortable with the change - even though Madge had taken it pretty well, last time, she wasn't sure that the kids would be as cool with the whole different body thing.

They probably would be. But the thought of it still made her feel a little bit like her insides were trying to crawl up her spine.)

The TARDIS _beeps_ , pulling the Doctor out of her thoughts.

She smiles up at the ceiling half-heartedly, and leans to the edge of the console. 

"Right. Well then. You know where to go, Old Girl." The Doctor moves to man the controls, even though most of them were now fully being controlled by the TARDIS herself. Still, she liked feeling like she was in control. 

It doesn't take long for them to land - hopefully - in the right Christmas Eve, the one right after she had last seen Madge. 1953. 

The Doctor opens the doors to find herself in a snowy yard of a big, old house. One that was familiar in a way only things she had seen with different eyes looked in her memories. 

Hazy, and a little bitter around the edges. 

She - needlessly - straightens her bow tie again, wipes the hair away from her face, and shoves her hands in the pockets of her trousers.

And then she walks to the door.

There's a snowman in the yard (a perfectly ordinary, harmless looking one, but she still scans it with the sonic, just in case).

Then she knocks. 

Madge Arwell opens the door, smiling, her eyes kind as ever. The lights inside the house shining from behind her make her hair turn into a golden halo, and for a moment the absolute warmth radiating from her make the Doctor's hearts ache.

"Caretaker!" She greets the Doctor, seemingly not at all surprised at her arrival. "You're just in time. I just heated up some mulled wine, it turned out absolutely marvelous this time around."

"Hello." The Doctor smiles at her, and without quite meaning to, scrunches up her nose at the thought of wine.

(She was pretty sure she was't a fan this time around, either).

"Come in, come in." Madge steps away from the doorway and gestures for the Doctor to follow. "In, in, out of the cold. The family's all here."

The word _family_ makes the Doctor's throat suddenly dry, for some reason, but she manages to keep the smile on her face at least somewhat convincingly. "Thank you." She says, more quietly than she was planning.

Before the Doctor realizes, Madge has already taken her coat and ushered her into the kitchen. She can hear voices from the sitting room - the main one - and at least some of those voices sound familiar. Distantly, like she had read about them in a book - but maybe that's what happens when you've heard something with different ears, twice over.

Madge has offered her something warm that she had taken instinctively, a mug of something steaming and deep, deep red that was warming up her hands very nicely.

"Oh." The Doctor looks down at the mug she had acquired somewhere between thoughts. "Mulled wine? What did you do to the wine to mull it?" She asks, before lifting it up to her face to smell it. 

" _Oh_." She repeats, when the scent registers - it's warm, sweet, and somehow spicy at the same time. The Doctor thinks she can detect some cinnamon somewhere in there, and she likes it. "You know, I'm pretty sure I don't like wine, but this _does_ smell nice."

Madge smiles, still calmly walking around the kitchen, picking up a variety of things and placing them on some sort of a tray.

"It's not actually wine. More like warm juice. The kid's version, at least." Madge grins at her.

"Kid's version?" The Doctors asks, curious. And partially wondering if she should feel offended. She wasn't sure how old Madge was, exactly, but the Doctor was _sure_ she was older than her. By a lot. But then again, on the other hand, most children's things were more fun than the adult versions, so she decided to let it slide. 

"I couldn't very well get you drunk, now could I? I don't know how you aliens respond to alcohol. Besides, you seem like the type of person who gets into quite a lot of trouble when drunk."

The Doctor tilts her head a bit and squints her eyes a little, not sure how to respond. She briefly considers explaining that alcohol burned through her system pretty quickly, and usually, didn't really correlate with how much trouble she got into.

Madge hums quietly and nods to herself. "Well, that one's just juice and spices. It's good too, just doesn't make your head feel all light and funny."  
The Doctor walks closer to her, inspecting the contents of the tray she was now balancing on one hand. There are little cups filled with different things - almonds and raisins, spoons, napkins, and biscuits. 

_Biscuits_!

"Are you traveling alone again?" Madge asks, in a way that sounds casual but has a very careful edge to it. Like someone skating on thin ice. The Doctor shifts her eyes away, blows the steam away from her mug.

Somewhere in the back of her mind, she remembers a saying about how holding warm things is good for calming one's nerves, and briefly she was thankful for this.

Madge nods quietly to herself, rearranging the spoons on the tray. "You didn't have to come alone, Caretaker. You shouldn't be alone. Could've brought someone. The more the merrier. You know, Lily and Cyril both brought someone, too."

The Doctor smiles politely, not really agreeing - still felt a bit like she was imposing, an alien in the middle of their human Christmas.

Someone laughs in the next room over - a young voice. Way too young to be Lily or Cyril. 

Madge smiles, without looking up from the tray. "Well, Lily's brought the same someone for quite a few years now. She has a regular someone, and a few wonderful children." 

This makes the Doctor's smile turn more genuine, and she turns her eyes towards the doorway. "Ah. Grandchildren, then?"

Madge laughs a little. "I know, can't quite believe it myself. They're lovely, of course, but I don't think I quite feel like a grandmother yet."

The Doctor nods. "I was a grandfather once. Or twice, technically speaking. It's a tough job." She looks up at the ceiling, out of habit, even though the one here is just wood and doesn't know how to read her thoughts. "But I'm sure you'll do great, Madge. You're the ultimate mother, i'm sure it'll carry over to grandmothering." She smiles at her, trying to look as encouraging as possible. 

"Besides, I'm here now! I'm great with children. I think." 

Madge glances at her, a little suspicious. Then, she points one very accusing finger in the Doctor's general direction. "No inter-dimensional traveling or trips to the time vortex." She says, walking out of the kitchen. Then she stops in the doorway for a moment, the hem of her skirt flowing with the change of pace.

"-Without my permission."

The Doctor smiles, shifting to follow after her. "Yes, Mum." 

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, Bill is the Doctor's "technical" grandchild. I have decided this and it is canon.


End file.
